Sunday

September Favourites

I'm very sorry for the overly-long break from posting! I was away in Greece for most of September and the work weeks at either end of my holiday were as you can imagine, very busy! With the long dark evenings coming and lots of staying in I'll definitely be posting more regularly as I have a huge backlog of bits I want to review and looks to post. I also have a couple of little of hauls from Prague and Greece which I'll get around to posting in the next week or so.

This week I'm watching MAC like a hawk for the release of the Venomous Villains collection. I was in Westfield on Saturday and the girls in the shop didn't even know the exact release date, but said it would be towards the end of this week. I also popped into Superdrug yesterday to have a gawk at the new Sleek blushes as I'd seen a very pretty swatch of the 'Rose Gold' shade in blogland. I swiped on a bit with my fingers from the tester - not ideal - but it really lifted my face and is one of the prettiest blushes I've tried in a long time. Of course they were all sold out, but the sales girl told me she was expecting a new batch this morning, so I'm getting himself to pick one up for me today. Pictures and swatches to come if he's successful! Boots also has a good deal on the John Freida line - two products for £6 so I picked up the Root Awakening shampoo and styling spray. I'll give a review of them when I've had a good chance to test them out.

I didn't do a 'favourites' post in August as my outstanding products were the same as July's batch. I always find that packing cosmetics for holidays always reveals your absolute favourites and must haves, so I have a decent roll call of goodies from September! First and foremost, Urban Decay's Naked Palette. I picked this up from House of Fraser a good few days before the official release date and I can't believe I still haven't gotten around to doing a proper review of it yet with a few looks. All in the pipeline! Anyway, this was the one and only set of eyeshadows I packed for Greece and it served me well, for both day and night looks. I sometimes find eyeshadows can irritate my eyes when I'm in the sun as my eyes tend to run a bit, but I experience no problems with these shadows. My favourite eyeshadow of all time is 'Sin' and I've also become very fond of Toasted, Sidecar and Hustle. If you are a neutrals girl, you need this palette in your life. It also creates an impressive smoky eye.

1. H&M eyeslash curlers: I don't know what possessed me to pick up H&M's eyelash curlers, but it was a great moment of madness. They were about £2 and I have them for over a year. I bought into the huge hype of Shu Uemura's curlers and forked out almost £20 to be sorely disappointed. Whilst the Shu's might work wonderfully for some eyeshapes, it's H&M's which do the best job of opening up my eyes. If I take a minute to warm them up with a quick blast of my hairdryer my eyeslashes almost intertwine with my eyebrows! I used to be very naughty and curl my lashes after mascara application but have since learnt the error of my ways!2. No7 Quick Thinking wipes: these wipes purport to 'cleanse, tone, remove eye make-up and moisturise' and for once, a product actually does what it says on the tin! If I have quite heavy slap on I find I need to use 2-3 wipes. There's nothing like washing make-up off with soap and water, but for those lazy episodes, these are just about the next best thing. They're a vital product for me to take on holiday. I've even tested the cleanliness of my skin after use with an astringent toner and have been surprised at how little the wipes missed. I've tried many brands of wipes and most sting me, but the No7 ones don't sting in the slightest, not even after some heavy rubbing around the eye area (bad for the old fine lines I know!). I've just checked the price on Boots.com and it's £6.75. I'm pretty sure they used to be around £7.50, so that's good news. I never actually paid the full whack for them but got them for a couple of quid with one of those £5 off vouchers for No7. There's 30 wipes in a pack.

3. Coastal Scents brush roll: this brush roll came with a set of 15 brushes from US online store Coastal Scents and the set cost $40. The brushes have red handles and are reminiscent of Smashbox's. The brushes are still going strong although they aren't exactly MAC quality. The best bit however, is the roll. I've also got one from Inglot which I paid £25 for but I hardly ever reach for it. Good brushes can get seriously destroyed if you just bung them in the bag along with your make up, but if they're in a roll, and even better, with brush guards on, they'll travel just fine. Let me know if you want me to do a review of the whole set.

4. MAC Viva Glam Cyndy Lipstick: I resisted this when I picked up Lady Gaga's VG but I've been looking for a red that suits me for a while and this seemed perfect. I tried Russian Red but it made my lips look too thin and was too dark for me. I'll post some swatches of it with my Prague haul.

5. Victoria's Secret 'Wish Pink' EDP: I picked up a small roller ball vial of this at Heathrow in June and fell in love with it, so I picked up the 50ml bottle when I was heading to Prague. The bottle completely appeals to my love of tack, and pink :) It's a very sweet, vanilla girly scent and reminds me of the past summer. I wish more perfumes came in bag-friendly rollerball versions as scent doesn't linger well on my skin and I need to reapply throughout the day, but don't like lugging around large bottles.

6. e.l.f. Professional Shine Eraser Blotting Sheets: I've made about 5 or 6 e.l.f orders since I discovered it and I always throw a pack of these blotting sheets into my basket. For anyone with oily skin who reapplies powder or liquid foundation during the day, you need some of these babies to suck up the grease first. Gross, but extremely effective, and only £1.50!

7. M&S Autograph Blush brush: I picked up this blusher brush in June, click here to read about it in more detail as none of my face brushes were small enough to apply concentrated colour on the apples of my cheeks. This brush does the job and I love it. If you haven't checked out Marks and Spencer's make-up brushes they're worth a look and quite inexpensive!

8. MAC 239 eyeshadow brush: this is my all time favourite eye shadow brush and was the one which I reached for most on holiday. If you don't have this brush in your collection, add it to your wishlist as I haven't ever come across a decent dupe of it. It's fabulous!Disappointment Of The Month: Benefit Coralista

Raving about great products is all well and good and I've discovered some amazing things from beauty blogger recommendations, however, I equally like to read about products which may not live up the their hype and therefore save me the hunt and the cash, so I'm introducing a new segment to my monthly faves - Disappointment Of The Month, or DOTM.

If you keep an eye on my 'Desires' list in the sidebar you'll have noticed that Coralista's been on there from the beginning. I came close to buying it so many times but couldn't justify £23.50 for something I would only use as a blusher. I spotted this set of three mini Benefit powders - Dallas, Dandelion and Coralista at Heathrow and pounced on it! Sadly however I've come to accept that Coralista looks too orange on me. I know it works wonders for a lot of people, but I have what you could call 'Ginger skin' (pale, sometimes blue, a bit transparent in areas and freckly) and even wearing it in Greece where I gained a little bit of colour, it just looked wrong on my cheeks. So with regret, I have to name Benefit's Coralista as my Disappointment Of The Month :(

Yep you're right, I remember the other stuff was £7.50. The best VS stuff is in Terminal 1, I've been to T5 twice now and they're always out of stock on stuff, and sadly I'm flying through T5 for Miami too, even Gatwick is better!

@Evelien, yes it's a shame, but there are plenty cheaper blushers that suit me better, Sleek's Rose Gold is similar, but really suits me and I can't wait to get my hands on it!

@Robyn - I've been on a mission for it! The woman in Westfield's Superdrug keeps lying about when it's getting restocked - I have Kev going over and checking for me when he gets a break haha! Poor fella! Latest word is that a new batch is coming in tomorrow morning!

I hate that..1. There are no VS stores on the way OUT of the airport and2. There is no post office near the duty free!Or else I would give you some money to buy me a bunch of VS stuff and post it to me from the airport lounge!